It was a night nobody associated with Cardiff City will ever forget, least of all the players who secured legendary status among the Bluebirds faithful.

On March 10, 1971, the Bluebirds stunned the giants of Madrid at Ninian Park thanks to a Brian Clark header that sent 47,500 Cardiff fans into dreamland.

Here, one of the players, Gary Bell, fondly recalls one of the greats nights of his life...

The story of the match...in a nutshell

March 10, 1971, European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final first-leg

Cardiff City 1 - 0 Real Madrid

Brian Clark secured immortal status at Ninian Park when his unforgettable winner beat the great Real Madrid side in Cardiff’s finest hour in front of their own fans.

The striker’s 31st minute header from a pinpoint cross by teenager Nigel Rees against the six-times European champions and most famous club in the world sent an estimated 50,000 fans into raptures.

Cardiff could have scored more and the South Wales Echo proclaimed: “Whatever happens in Madrid, nobody can take anything away from the players for their wonderful show.”

The Bluebirds lost 2-0 in the return at the Bernabeu.

In his own words, Bell takes up the story...

Inside the Cardiff camp

I can remember the euphoria among the lads and around the city when the draw was announced. Dear me! Not only were the great Real Madrid team coming to play at Ninian Park, we were going to play at the Bernabeu. What a fantastic draw. I’d seen them on the television, but had never even dreamed of playing against them.

We had a good all-round team. Jim Eadie, a big, strong Scottish lad, was a quality goalkeeper. We had a settled back four with Dave Carver, Don Murray - our captain and a great centre-half - alongside Leighton Phillips. Brian Harris was injured and Leighton, a young lad and future Wales player, stepped in. I was at left-back.

Ian Gibson was a quality midfield player, while we had the likes of Bobby Woodruff alongside him and Brian Clark in attack. Brian only played because we had signed Alan Warboys from Sheffield Wednesday and he was ineligible to play. In those days players had to be signed for three months before you could play for a club in Europe. They were the rules of the competition at the time.

Clarkie came up, while it was a toss-up for the left-wing slot. Ronnie Bird was the regular player in that position and a quality player, but Jimmy Scoular opted for 17-year-old Nigel Rees. History now tells us Nigel provided the cross for Clarkie to head the only goal.

Not a spare seat in the house...

A crazy build-up...

On the pre-match build-up: There was a huge clamour for tickets. Everybody wanted to see the great Real Madrid. The week before the game was absolutely mad, but as the match got closer we felt better and better about playing Real Madrid.

On the day of the game there was a nervous tension in the group, but we knew we were a good team and could give a good account of ourselves. Jimmy Scoular kept everybody’s feet on the ground. He made sure it was business as usual.

Jimmy told us we could beat Real Madrid and everybody played their part in a fantastic victory.

Facing Real Madrid winger Amancio Amaro...

He was playing on the right wing and the player I had to mark. He was an outstanding player, but I knew very little about him before kick-off. There were no DVDs to watch in those days, no information at all. All I knew was his name and that he was a Spanish international. That was it. He was good, no doubt about that, but luckily the first time he had possession I got in a great tackle.

That set me up for the game and I was able to contain him most of the time. I was pleased with my own performance that night. I felt I had played my part.

The star for Madrid in that first leg was Manuel Valezquez, an attacking midfield player. He played behind the front two and his performance sticks in my mind. He was superb, but we won. Cardiff City defeated Real Madrid and nobody can take that away from us.

Cardiff City's Brian Clark celebrates after scoring the only goal of the game.

It's over...the Bluebirds have done it!

We’d beaten Real Madrid. What can you say? A couple of players went off to have some supper, but most stayed at Ninian Park and celebrated with a couple of drinks at the ground. My family were down from the midlands and we relaxed for a couple of hours and left just after midnight. It was an occasion never to be forgotten, but there was no great party. Everything was calm and normal after what was a good win.’

Treasured mementos...

We flew into Madrid for the second leg and stayed in a lovely hotel on the outskirts. We trained at the Bernabeu twice. It was a fantastic stadium, huge. It was bigger than anywhere we had played before. It was a dream come true. So impressive, but we weren’t overawed. On the night of the game we went through our usual matchday routine, training in the morning, relaxing in the afternoon, pre-match meal and off to the ground.

After the match, Madrid presented all of our players with a gold watch to mark the occasion. I still have my watch, of course.

In those days players did not swap shirts after matches as they do today. That just wasn’t done, But after we went off the pitch one of our party asked politely if it was possible for us to have a shirt. They took us all down to the kit room and we had one each.

I have Pirri’s shirt. No.4. What a fabulous player he was. My grandson has it now - it’s in good hands.’

Cardiff City manager Jimmy Scoular, pictured with members of the City team looking at the South Wales Echo Real Madrid Special.

Great joy...but a missed opportunity

Cardiff were the better team at Ninian Park. We won 1-0, but that could easily have been 3-0. We were that much the better team. That’s how we felt in our dressing room - and there was real confidence among us for the second leg.

Okay, we lost 2-0, but we were not overawed at all and certainly weren’t second best on the night. It was 0-0 at half-time, but then they scored. But we defended well and had a couple of breaks where we might have nicked a goal. Then they scored a second. We tried desperately to get back at them, but ran out of time.

Over the two legs we should have won. We were the team who deserved to play Manchester City in the semi-finals. If that had happened there was a real chance we could have gone onto the final in Athens where Real Madrid played Chelsea.

It was a memorable time and memories from those matches against Real Madrid will always be with me. But I still feel we could have won, maybe we should have won.